Reliance on modern sophisticated equipment for making 'discoveries' has limited the human power of observing subtle clues in the environment that are capable of saving cost and labour that come with researching new resources and methods to improve life for all. Due to the growing scarcity of potable water, especially in African and Asian countries, newer, cheaper and reliable methods of investigating groundwater resources are becoming critical. One such potentially promising method is mapping the distribution of termite mounds in the environment. Termite mounds are conspicuous landscape features in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. Built from surrounding soils by several species of termite, the properties of mound soil are relatively different from the surrounding soil in most cases, indicating improved hydraulic properties. In this paper, the aim is to review the possibility of employing termite mounds as prospecting tools for groundwater search from three spatial scales of observation. From assessing the smallest to the highest scale of observation, it can be concluded that termite mounds' prospect as surface indicators of groundwater is apparent. Review findings indicate increased surface water infiltration, presence of riparian tree vegetation and other trees with tap-root system around termite mounds, linear assemblage of termite mounds along aquiferous dykes and seep-lines as well as the dependence of termites on water but avoidance of places with risk of inundation. Whether they indicate permanent groundwater reserves in all cases or whether all species depend largely on water for their metabolism is a subject for further research.

Millions of tons of waste is produced in the world each year and most of it is not recyclable. Furthermore, recycling waste consumes energy and produces pollution. In addition, accumulation of waste in the suburbs and the disposal of waste are very dangerous for the environment. Using waste material in concrete production is an appropriate method for achieving two goals: eliminating waste and adding positive properties in concrete. Since the green concrete industry is expanding, it is necessary to evaluate concrete that contains waste from all aspects in order to determine its capability. This literature study consists of two parts i.e. the use of waste as a substitute for cement and as a substitute for aggregates. Leading waste material that has been used as substitutes is highlighted and the characteristics of the resulting concrete is evaluated. Among other findings, rubber was found to have improved fire resistance and ductility in concrete and agricultural and PET wastes were successfully used in non-structural concrete, while glass helped to improve thermal stability.

Heterogeneous parallel architecture (HPA) are inherently more complicated than their homogeneous counterpart. HPAs allow composition of conventional processors, with specialised processors that target particular types of task. However, this makes mapping and scheduling even more complicated and difficult in parallel applications. Therefore, it is crucial to use a robust modelling approach that can capture all the critical characteristics of the application and facilitate the achieving of optimal mapping. In this study, we perform a concise theoretical analysis as well as a comparison of the existing modelling approaches of parallel applications. The theoretical perspective includes both formal concepts and mathematical definitions based on existing scholarly literature. The important characteristics, success factors and challenges of these modelling approaches have been compared and categorised. The results of the theoretical analysis and comparisons show that the existing modelling approaches still need improvement in parallel application modelling in many aspects such as covered metrics and heterogeneity of processors and networks. Moreover, the results assist us to introduce a new approach, which improves the quality of mapping by taking heterogeneity in action and covering more metrics that help to justify the results in a more accurate way.

The paper presents a literature review on the problem of safety in the design of a new product. To do this, approaches of design and domains that have been integrated into it are firstly presented. Next, diverse methods for predicting and evaluating the safety properties are defined. Then, different approaches that have been developed to solve the problem are discussed, and a synthesis table is given that regroups all the work carried out, allowing a comparative analysis leading to the identification of future research tracks.

Researchers have in recent years pointed to microgravity as presenting a unique opportunity for better disease prevention and treatments. Spaceflight can induce many changes in human physiological systems. In particular, the cardiovascular system is especially affected by spaceflight due to changes at the cellular level. Endothelial cells are very sensitive to microgravity. Morphological and functional changes in endothelial cells have been extensively studied since they are believed to be the source of many cardiovascular diseases. Studies have also shown that endothelial cells play a key role in angiogenesis, which can be stimulated in a clinostat-induced microgravity environment. This is a review of studies, based on different research approaches, on human umbilical vein endothelial cells. The myriad molecular cascades and signalling pathways involving gene regulation, proteins, inflammatory response activation, alteration of endothelial behaviour, and cell senescence are highlighted. Age-related disorders experienced on earth are very similar to the changes induced in space by microgravity. As we seek solutions to medical problems, the most innovative and beneficial at present are in space medicines and therapies.

The objectives of this study were firstly, to develop a simulation model (SM) for a single reservoir to identify the standard operating policy (SOP) of a reservoir based on a monthly operating period, and secondly, to evaluate the performance of the proposed Makhoul reservoir using a Developed Simulation Model (DSM) in reducing flood risk. This reservoir is located on the River Tigris, approximately 180 km upstream of Baghdad, Iraq. The performance of the reservoir in reducing flood risk was evaluated using two designs and records of flood waves gathered over two years. The first design was the present one, while the second was developed by increasing the operational storage to its maximum, based on the digital maps of the region. The flows downstream of the reservoir were compared, with and without the reservoir in the two years in question. Four parameters resulting from the two designs were compared: storage, surface area, elevation and power. The results suggested that the reservoir would be ineffective in reducing flood risk, but it would have the ability to provide hydroelectric power using the two designs, with the new one showing better ability at doing this. The reservoir can also serve purposes such as irrigation, fish wealth development and recreation. This DSM proved its effectiveness in evaluating the performance of the single storage system used for reservoirs.

This paper presents a mathematical model of the traditional musical instrument, the kompang. In this study, a mathematical model of the kompang membrane is developed to simulate the vibration of the kompang membrane in polar coordinates by implementing the Fourier-Bessel wave function. The wave equation in polar direction is applied to provide the vibration modes of the membrane with the corresponding natural frequencies of the circular membrane. The initial and boundary conditions are determined to allow the development of numerical equation based on kompang membrane attachment. The mathematical model is coded in Smath for the numerical analysis as well as the plotting tool. Two kompang membrane cases with different membrane materials i.e. goat-skin and x-ray film are tried to test the model. The Finite Element Method (FEM) programme, Mecway, shows that the natural frequencies and the corresponding mode shapes are comparable with those from the developed model.

The main goal of this paper is to present an efficient method for secure 2D image visualisation and transmission through chaotic confusion and pixel diffusion methods. In recent years, the expeditious valuation of digital data exchange has become very important. The safety of any data exchange is imperative in the digital image data storage, retrieval process and communication procedure. The safety and security issues related to Internet banking and email systems necessitate text security in today's digital media. In order to provide secure transmission and retrieval of image data, pixels in an image are scrambled and replaced within the image. The proposed system uses chaotic confusion and pixel diffusion techniques for securing input images. In the confusion method, the pixels within the image are substituted with other values and in the diffusion method, the pixels are re-substituted within the input image. The confusion method and the diffusion method use the selective technique for the generation of secret keys. Improve the quality of the proposed work is utilizing various image quality parameters and error metrics such as MSE, SNR, PSNR etc. The proposed system also utilises chaos maps for the encryption and decryption of the input image.

Birth weight is considered a factor that determines a baby's survival and predicts longstanding health. Hence, proper estimation of prevalence and determinants that are associated with low birth weight (LBW) is necessary for reduction of LBW. However, data on birth weight from developing countries are usually incomplete. Therefore, this study is aimed at handling missing values on determinants and identification of factors associated with LBW. The child data set from the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), 2011 was applied in this study. It contained information on 5240 children, but 3318 children had missing values on birth weight. Hence, in this study 1922 infants with measured birth weight were analysed. Multiple imputation was applied to handle missing values on determinants. The results revealed that only one variable was significant with LBW. Mothers residing in the Eastern and Far-Western development region were more inclined to give birth to LBW. The results obtained after handling missing values is considered less biased than assuming non-missing values or ignoring missing values. This suggests that missing values on determinants should be handled rather than ignored or assumed to be non-missing.

iPS cells were originally generated using monocistronic retroviral vectors carrying the Yamanaka factors 'OSKM'. The development of a polycistronic viral vector with OSKM linked by 2A peptides has simplified reprogramming procedure and reduced the risk of multiple proviral integrations and insertional mutagenesis. In this study, we demonstrated the production of the polycistronic lentiviral vector encoding OSKM in a single cassette without a reporter gene or drug-based selection system. Syncytia formations were clearly seen following the co-transfection of a lentiviral plasmid construct with the structural and packaging plasmids. The virion was collected at 48 hours post-transfection. Afterwards, the viral titers were measured by the expression of Sox2 protein from transduced HT1080 cells. Subsequently, Oct4 expression was successfully detected in mouse fibroblasts in the range of 5, 10 and 20 MOIs with expression of 90.7%, 97.5% and 98%, respectively. The results obtained from this study could be used as a model for the production of OSKM lentiviral vector for newcomers to cellular reprogramming research.

Astrocytic gliomas are the most common primary brain tumours that originated from human glial cells. The tumours rely upon endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) for neoangiogenesis. This study aimed to investigate the association between tissue resident EPCs in a brain tumour and normal adjacent tissue in relation to age and grade of astrocytic glioma. Astrocytic glioma patients (n=22), grade I to grade IV were consented from Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia. Brain tumour tissue and normal adjacent brain tissue samples were obtained from each patient during surgery. The EPCs were stained with CD133+ and VEGFR-2+ markers. The tissue residents EPCs for each sample were determined using the immunofluorescence microscopy method. The age of the patients increased by disease severity in the following order (Grade I: 21.33±20.79 years) < (Grade II: 46.50±0.707 years) < (Grade III: 47.38±11.95 years) < (Grade IV: 48.44 ±10.66 years). The EPCs in brain tumour correlated significantly with the age of the patients with positive correlation (Spearman's rho correlation test, r=0.52; p=0.013). The tissue resident EPCs in the brain tumour (median=0.40, IqR=0.59) were significantly higher compared with the adjacent normal brain (median=0.067, IqR=0.29) (Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test, Z stat=-3.587, p<0.001). Higher tissue resident EPCs were found in high grade (III & IV) glioma compared with EPCs in low grade (I & II) glioma (median=0.61, IqR=0.70 vs. median=0.26, IqR=0.30; z=-1.763 p=0.078). This study showed increased EPCs with age and grade of malignancy in astrocytic glioma patients. Therefore, targeting EPCs in gliomas based on tumour grade malignancy and age of the patients might be useful in effective treatment of astrocytic glioma.

A novel n i trogen - s u lphur macrocycl ic Schiff b a s e, 4 , 11 , 2 0 , 2 7 - tet r a t h ioxo- 3,12,19,28-tetrathia-5,6,9,10,21,22,25,26-octaazatricyclo[28.2.2.214,17]hexatriaconta 1(33),6,8,14(36),15,17(35),22,24,30(34),31-decaene-2,13,18,29-tetraone (TGSB) derived from terephthaloyl-bis-dithiocarbazate (TDTC) and glyoxal (ethane-1,2-dione) is synthesised via condensation. Metal complexes are formed by reacting the Schiff base with various metal salts such as Ru(III), Mo(V), Cd(II), Zn(II) and Cu(II). The complexes are expected to have a general formula of M2L or M3L with a square planar or square pyramidal geometry. These compounds were characterised by various physico-chemical and spectroscopic techniques. From the data, it is concluded that the azomethine nitrogen atom and the thiolate sulphur atom from the ligand are bonded to the metal ion. In the IR spectra of the complexes, the presence of the C=N band in the region of 1600 cm-1 indicates the successful formation of the Schiff base. The structures of the Schiff base and metal complexes are confirmed via FT-IR, GC-MS and NMR spectroscopic analysis. The magnetic susceptibility measurements, electronic spectral data and molar conductivity analysis support the desired geometry of the complexes. The Schiff base and its metal complexes are evaluated for their biological activities against the invasive human bladder carcinoma cell line (EJ-28) and the minimum-invasive human bladder carcinoma cell line (RT-112). The RuTGSB and CdTGSB complexes showed selective activity against RT-112.

Pre-processing and testing methodology plays a significant role in online handwritten character recognition. Although many researchers have proposed several pre-processing and testing methods, the effect of these techniques on the recognition and comparisons among them are ignored. In this work, experiments were conducted to analyse the effect of various pre-processing and testing methods on Kannada handwritten data. The focus of the present work is to statistically quantify the effect on recognition time and accuracy through experiments using different pre-processing methods on online handwritten data processed by the Support Vector Machine (SVM). The performance of the SVM is also compared with various other training and testing methodology. The performance of the online handwriting recognition system is affected dramatically by the various pre-processing and testing methods. Stratified tenfold cross validation showed better performance for the Kannada handwritten dataset.

The present study uses statistical methods, specifically multiple regression (MR) and gamma generalised linear models (Gamma GLM), for the modelling and analysis of period rainfall variability in Australia during the period 1950-2013. The data from 92 observational stations were collected from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Factor analysis was first used to group the 92 stations into eight rainfall regions. The consecutive five-day mean rainfall in a year (period) in each region is then modelled using MR and the Gamma GLM. The results show that the models fit the data quite well in all the regions, but the MR model did better than the Gamma GLM in some of the regions. The MR models revealed three rainfall groupings, and each group had diverse rainfall patterns and trends. Significant decreasing annual rainfall trend was revealed in the southwest and the north southeast regions. In contrast, significant increasing annual rainfall trends were found in the north and the northwest regions.

In this study, simulation and optimisation of the purification of bioethanol from an azeotropic mixture was done using the Aspen HYSYS and the Response Surface Methodology (RSM), respectively, to achieve an acceptable bioethanol content with minimal energy use. The objective of this study is to develop the simulation process of bioethanol production from a fermentation effluent. Additionally, the effects of parameters such as solvent temperature, number of entrainer feed stage, mass flow rate and third components of the process for production of bioethanol were studied. As bioethanol is a product of biofuel production, the main challenge facing bioethanol production is the separation of high purity ethanol. However, the separation of ethanol and water can be achieved with the addition of a suitable solvent such as 1,3-butylene glycol (13C4Diol), mixture 13C4Diol and ethylene glycol (EGlycol) and mixture 13C4Diol and glycol ethyl ether (DEG) in the extractive distillation process. For the 13C4Diol mixture, the temperature of entrainer is 90°C with 1500 kg/hr of entrainer rate, while the number of entrainer feed stage is one. The optimum conditions for mixture 13C4Diol and EGlycol require a temperature of entrainer of 90.77°C with an entrainer rate of 1500 kg/hr, while the number of entrainer feed stage is one. Lastly, for optimum conditions for the mixture 13C4Diol and DEG, the temperature of entrainer should be 90°C with an entrainer rate of 1564.04 kg/hr, while the number of entrainer feed stage is one. This study shows that process simulation and optimisation can enhance the removal of water from an azeotropic mixture.

Minimally invasive surgery results in faster recovery. The objective of this study is to identify criteria for the feasibility of 24-hour discharge post laparoscopic ovarian cystectomy. This is a prospective cross-sectional study that was carried out at the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department in Putrajaya Hospital between 1 January and 31 December, 2016. The inclusion criteria were: age between 15 and 45, no comorbidities, no family history of malignancy, BMI of less than 30, mass size less than 18 weeks, single uninoculated simple cyst and no ascites. The exclusion criteria were post-menopause women, known medical illness, family history of malignancy, mass size more than 18 weeks, multiloculated or bilateral ovarian cyst, presence of solid area within the cyst and ascites. The sample size was calculated to be 14. A total of 16 participants were identified. Results showed that using the Visual Analogue Score (VAS), the mean pain score post operatively in the first six hours, 24 hours, 48 hours, two weeks and three months were 3.67, 2.57, 0.5, 0 and 0, respectively. Two of the subjects experienced post-operative nausea and vomiting, one had urinary tract infection and one had minor bleeding from the surgical site. All the participants were discharged within 24 hours post-operatively. There was no readmission. In conclusion, 24-hour discharge post laparoscopic cystectomy is safe and feasible. Factors determining the success must be adhered to closely to ensure a good and satisfactory outcome. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Knowledge extraction from medical datasets is a challenging task. Medical datasets are known for their complexity in terms of noise, missing values and imbalanced class distribution. Classification algorithms can assist medical experts in disease diagnosis provided that a rigorous and methodological evaluation of classification models is applied by selecting appropriate sampling techniques, performance metrics and statistical tests. An ad hoc approach in this regard can result in unexpectedly high misclassification rates, which may prove very costly in terms of people's health and lives. In this paper, we illustrate a methodology to evaluate and compare multiple classification algorithms on multiple medical datasets. The example experiment is conducted by applying five well-known machine learning algorithms i.e. the Support Vector Machine (SVM), Decision Tree (DT), Random Forest (RF), Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO) and Genetic Algorithm (GA) for discovering classification models for disease diagnosis from 11 publicly available medical datasets from the UCI machine learning laboratory. We conclude through a stepwise evaluation process that the performance of the Random Forest classifier was significantly better in diagnosing various diseases. The paper also addresses the issue of class imbalance and non-uniform misclassification costs, usually prevalent in datasets for disease diagnosis.

Climate change has been strongly dealt with in the literature on the economy in recent decades. In many semi-arid regions of the world, issues related to climate change including the scarcity of water resources are crucial for consideration in overcoming obstacles to development. The value of water increases and presents itself as a quantitative and qualitative constraint to its domestic, industrial and, particularly, agricultural use. Given the multi-dimensional and multi-scalar nature of climate change, this research proposes an integrated agronomic, economic and hydrologic modelling for the Tadla sub-basin in Morocco to assess the potential economic impacts of climate change on agricultural water management in this region. This tool permits to predict inter-annual variations of selected socio-economic water management indicators from 2014 to 2050. The simulated climate scenarios include the RCP (Representative Concentration Pathway) 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenario, taking into account the main crops, water resources and the socio-economic context of the study area. The results show that climate change can have an impact in reducing the total agricultural profit calculated across the Tadla sub-basin (by about -0.34% and -0.44% each year according to RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 climate scenarios, respectively) and in increasing irrigation water shadow price progressively. Overall, this research helps to improve understanding of the potential economic impact of climate change and to guide stakeholders in their choices in terms of future adaptation policies.

Groundwater is a precious resource, both for yield and quality. This paper demonstrates the imaginative, progressive and innovative approaches of simulated renovations giving substantial advantages to the general public. Utilising groundwater to stimulate wells, in conjunction with a rainwater conservation framework, is proposed in this review. The unique plan and cost correlations as well as groundwater quality change are examined for the procedures of the tempest water seepage framework with and without reviving wells. The region chosen for study is Bhimrad, a new urban centre in Surat City in Gujarat State, India. Two rainwater structures are considered: (1) a traditional rainwater water drainage system excluding groundwater revive wells, and (2) a rainwater drainage system including groundwater revive wells. This paper shows that due to determination of the optimal diameter of revive wells, cost saving in the modified system is possible, along with improvement in groundwater contamination. The use of a modified rainwater drainage system would economically benefit the SMC (Surat Municipal Corporation) by conserving 25.43% of their reserve funds.

An electrolytic capacitor is a widely used, passive component in electronics and the manufacturing industry. But it is known for its low reliability when used in critical applications and environments. The prediction of the residual life of a capacitor is a challenging issue. It is beneficial for users as they will be ready to replace a component when it is faulty. This will save them replacement and repairing costs. This paper focusses on the mathematical modelling and behaviour analysis of electrolytic capacitors related to various electrical parameters and environmental stresses. A novel method is proposed to access the impact of humidity on the health of a capacitor. A capacitor's end of life is explored using the design of experiments approach. After calculating the lifetime of a capacitor, an expert system is modelled that can predict the sudden crash of the capacitor before it actually fails, using various statistical and analytical techniques. A comparison was done using the experimental calculated lifetime and proposed analytical method outcome. The proposed corrective model of lifetime calculation proves 92.76% accuracy. This shortfall is due to the fact that some electrical and environmental variables change at a pace that is too fast for the prediction system to respond.

The objective of this study was to compare the extraction of peanut skin using supercritical carbon dioxide extraction and soxhlet extraction in terms of oil yield and catechin. For supercritical fluid extraction, the temperatures used were 40 and 70°C, while pressure used was 10 and 30 MPa, the flow rate was CO2 3 mL/min, and the concentration of co-solvents was 0 and 5%. Meanwhile, for soxhlet extraction, the extraction time was 6 hr with ethanol, hexane and water as the solvents. The results showed that soxhlet extraction gave the highest yield of extract (36.282%) using ethanol as solvent as compared with supercritical CO2 extraction (15.47%) at pressure 30 MPa, temperature 70°C and 5% concentration of co-solvent. This study reveals that the extracts from SC-CO2 extraction yielded the highest amount of catechin (208.73 µg/g sample) compared with that yielded in the soxhlet extraction (42.24 73 µg/g sample) with distilled water as a solvent analysed with High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC).

Ionising radiation (IR) has been extensively used as therapy and diagnostic modality to detect abnormalities inside a human body. Interaction between IR and cells can lead to production of free radicals. This study aims to evaluate radioprotective properties of 50% watermelon juice against low dose ionising radiation (LDIR)-induced stress in mice lung and liver tissues following 14 days of juice supplementation. Eighteen (18) ICR mice were randomly divided into three groups, negative control (Cx), radiation (Rx) and treatment group (Tx). The Cx group was treated with normal diet and filtered water while the Rx group was given a normal diet, filtered water and irradiated with 100 µGy x-ray; Tx group was fed a normal diet, 50% watermelon juice and irradiated with 100 µGy x-ray. After 14 days, level of superoxide dismutase (SOD), reduced glutathione (GSH) and malondialdehyde (MDA) in lung and liver tissues were evaluated. The SOD inhibition activity revealed a significant decrease in Rx and Tx compared with Cx (p<0.001). The Rx and Tx showed significant reduction in GSH level compared with Cx (p<0.001) respectively. The MDA levels for lung tissues revealed a statistically significant value between Tx and Cx (p<0.05). The results suggest that 14 days supplementation of 50% watermelon juice was insufficient to foster radioprotective properties against LDIR-induced stress.

Positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) is a hybrid imaging modality that plays a crucial role in detecting and managing oesophageal cancer. However, not much is known about the clinicians' perspective on its usage for oesophageal cancer. The aim of this study is to know the perspective of clinicians on the utilisation of PET-CT imaging for oesophageal cancer patients. A total of 73 clinicians with multidisciplinary clinical specialties for oesophageal cancer management were interviewed. All these clinicians had completed a survey consisting of 31 questions on; practicality, clinical efficacy and cost-effectiveness of PET-CT. The survey used Likert-scale to evaluate the responses. In terms of PET-CT practicality and clinical efficacy 39.7% - 43.8% and 47.9% - 83.5% of the sample respectively responded positively while in with regards to cost effectiveness, there was a significant difference from being neutral to having no opinion in 6 out of 9 questions. It was clear from the study that PET-CT has positive impact in the management of oesophageal cancer patients. However, issues related to expertise, availability, staffing and bureaucracy need to be addressed to improve competency and quality of services.

A moderated theorem was established in this study to derive an infinite series as an absolute Riesz | Ñ,Pαn;ð;ý |k summable by applying an almost increasing sequence. Suitable conditions were applied for obtaining some well-known applications of the presented theorem. It was observed from the investigation that absolute summability could be used for Bounded Input Bounded Output stability and to bind the output of the signals as absolute summable, it was a necessary and sufficient condition for BIBO stability.

This article presents the experimental analysis of tool pin-profile effects on the weld zone shape, mechanical properties and microstructure of the friction stir welding (FSW) process. To determine tool pin-profile effects on weld zone shape, mechanical properties and microstructure, four different pin-profile tools were used namely, the cylindrical pin, conical pin, cylindrical-conical pin and stepped-conical pin. The results of the experiment showed that weld-zone shape thickness of the cylindrical-conical tool near the shoulder was the highest and the conical pin-profile tool was the lowest near the bottom of the tool pin with respect to all other tool pin-profiles. Fine grain structure was produced by the stepped-conical pin-profile tool in the weld zone compared with the other three pin-profile tools. Yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, ductility and joint efficiency of the stepped-conical tool were the highest among all the tool pin-profiles. Additionally, this article also explains the effect of weld-zone shape on mechanical properties, showing that the small basin shape of the weld-zone shape produces high yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, ductility and joint efficiency.

Since the last decade, the study of fractals and antifractals and their complex nature has been one of the significant areas of research. While many researchers are working on fractals, only a very few have focused on antifractals and their dynamic nature. This paper discovers new antifractals like tricorns for the complex antipolynomial z-n + c for n ≤ 2 in the GK-orbit. The main focus of this paper is to develop a new collection of antifractals and to understand their attributes using the GK-orbit.

In this paper, an explicit analytical model for a Graded Channel Gate All Around Schottky Barrier MOSFET is presented. The problem of carrier mobility degradation in a uniformly highly-doped Schottky Barrier MOSFET is assessed by graded channel architecture in which high doping is considered in the source and low doping in the drain. The Evencent Mode Analysis is carried out using the superposition technique to obtain the surface potential in the channel. The one-dimensional Poisson's and two-dimensional Laplace equations are solved to calculate the surface potential. The subthreshold current is obtained using the surface potential analysis. A TCAD simulator (ATLAS-3D device simulator) is used for numerical simulation purposes. The developed model results are in good agreement with the TCAD simulations.

Internal obstruction of the upper airways can be due to infection, anaphylactic reaction, congenital anomaly, foreign body inhalation or mass. This case report is of a lady who presented with upper airway obstruction due to subglottic ectopic thyroid tissue. She had a history of noisy breathing and progressive neck swelling since childhood. Biochemical results showed hypothyroid features while flexible scope showed tracheal stenosis. Computed Tomography (CT) detected a goitre and a posterior laryngeal mass at subglottic region causing laryngeal stenosis. The MRI helped to better delineate the soft tissue details of this mass. while elective direct laryngoscope showed a firm mass arising from the trachea. Debulking of the mass was done and histopathological diagnosis was nodular thyroid hyperplasia. Treatment with L-thyroxine was instituted with good clinical improvement. An ectopic thyroid gland can develop if its normal migration is halted along this tract during embryogenesis. Subglottic location of ectopic thyroid is extremely rare. However, ectopic thyroid tissue in the larynx should be considered as a possible diagnosis causing upper airway obstruction, especially in a patient that is clinically hypothyroid and having a concurrent goitre.

This paper highlights a potentially life threatening and unsuspected case of multiple small pseudoaneurysms from the thyrocervical and costocervical branch of the left subclavian artery that was spontaneously ruptured. The cause was not suspected prior to thoracic CT angiography (CTA) because the initial pre-emptive diagnosis was only trivial spontaneous hydropneumothorax which became serious after a chest tube was inserted.